People love to hate on their duvet covers. More specifically, they love the convenience of being able to toss the cover in the wash or swap it out for a fresh look, but they hate the awkwardness of wrestling the duvet into the cover. And, oh yeah, it has to look crisp and neat. Ideally without getting bunched up and turned around on the first day.
Four Washington Post staffers and duvet-cover owners tested three popular methods for getting a duvet into its cover. We timed ourselves to try to find the best — and most efficient — way to do it. Sizes tested included full, queen and king, and the times included any zhuzhing and shaking we needed to do to get a neat appearance.
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The results were mixed, proof that this task really is a matter of personal preference. But one thing that stood out: None of these methods took any of our testers more than 6 minutes to complete — less than two songs on a playlist. Which shows, perhaps, that this task has taken on an outsize level of dread.
Here are the methods we tried, with step-by-step instructions and our observations.
1. ‘Stuff it in’
The steps:
1. Lay your duvet cover on your bed, right-side-out, with the opening at the end nearest you.
2. Starting with one corner of your duvet, push it into a far corner of the cover, then tie or clip it to the cover. Repeat the process with the other far corner, then the near corners.
3. Close the opening on the cover, then shake it out and adjust as needed for a smooth finish.
Average time: 3 minutes, 20 seconds
One of our testers preferred this method, which came from House Beautiful, but others thought it was unwieldy.
One, who used a full-size duvet and a cover without ties, said it wasn’t that hard to do, but took considerable adjusting and zhuzhing to get the duvet to look neat once it was done, making it not worth the effort. “Overall, this wasn’t quite as chaotic as I anticipated it would be, but I would not recommend this or do it again myself,” she said.
That matches my experience with a king-size duvet. It was easy enough to get the insert in, but the amount of adjusting for a neat finish was not worth it.
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2. ‘Inside-out’
The steps:
1. Flip your duvet cover inside-out and lay it flat on your bed.
2. Place your duvet on top of the duvet cover, then attach them using ties or clips.
3. Grab two corners of the duvet, then flip the cover right-side out over the rest of the comforter until you reach the other two corners. Close the opening on the cover, then shake and adjust as needed.
Average time: 3 minutes, 4 seconds
This method, from TikTok, was the fastest one we tested, and while one person said her experience with it “produced a tangled mess” and could have passed for slapstick, two others declared it their favorite — in large part because it was the method they were already using.
“This has always seemed like the most logical approach to me,” one said. “Once the comforter is inside the duvet [cover], it takes a bit of smoothing/shaking to get it evenly dispersed. But on the whole, I like this method and don’t see a reason to deviate from it.”
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3. ‘Burrito roll’
The steps:
1. Turn your duvet cover inside-out and lay it flat on your bed. Then spread the duvet out on top of the cover and align the corners. Using the ties on the duvet or clips, secure each corner of the duvet to the cover.
2. This is where the “burrito” part comes in. Starting at the end opposite the cover’s opening, begin rolling the duvet and cover, moving back and forth between the sides of the bed as needed to keep the roll neat and even. (You can also kneel on the bed behind the comforter, moving up as you roll.)
3. Once it’s rolled, reach through the opening to pull first one side, then the other, out, then do the same with the middle, so the duvet cover is right-side out. Close the duvet opening.
4. Unroll the duvet and shake/smooth as needed.
Average time: 4 minutes, 24 seconds
This method, from Glamour, was the most time-consuming by more than a minute, but it was also the least familiar to testers and therefore at a natural disadvantage.
Despite the time involved, this proved to be my favorite method. Yes, I had to go back and forth between the sides of the bed while rolling it, but it required almost no shaking or smoothing. Sold.
Another tester, who prefers the inside-out technique, could see the benefits of the burrito roll. “Overall, this method worked just as well as inside-out,” she wrote. “The comforter may have even been more evenly dispersed throughout the duvet, with less shaking/fussing. The only reason I wouldn’t use this again is because I’m so used to the inside-out method and I don’t feel like starting over!”
One said it worked better than she thought it would, although it required some “aftermarket shaking and adjusting.” And another said he found it “complicated at the get-go to wrap your head around.” He doesn’t plan to use this method again.
Video testing by Alex Perry.
Have questions about home advice that you’d like us to test? Email me at Mari-Jane.Williams@washpost.com.
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